In a game between two shorthanded teams, Chicago did what they’ve done so often in the past few years and took care of business. A November win at home against a lottery team won’t make anybody anoint the Bulls any more than they had before, but tonight was a solid showcase for the new additions to the team.

Pau Gasol struggled defending Nikola Vucevic down low, and with his own shot on the other end, but held up despite playing over 34 minutes…in the first three quarters alone. That won’t (and can’t) be the norm, but on a night where Joakim Noah sat with an illness and Taj Gibson battled foul trouble, Pau answered the bell and withstood the heavy minutes Thibs required of him. It certainly helped that Vucevic had half a dozen turnovers and missed some easy shots, but Gasol had 16 points (on 7-16 shooting), 13 boards and a pair of blocks. If he has a poor stretch in this four-games-in-five-nights slog, he’ll definitely have an alibi.

As for the other first-year Bulls, Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks had their best games yet. Mirotic committed a couple of silly fouls in his nearly 23 minutes of court time, though his pair of three pointers were what pushed the Bulls ahead for good in the final frame. Up by two, he hit one with less than eight minutes to go to make it 82-77 and the other a minute later for an 87-79 lead, one they would not relinquish. Brooks assisted on the latter, one of eight dimes on the night for him, and he knocked down both of his triples. He had an emphatic block of Vucevic, who had beaten Gasol to the rim, and delivered the final blow to Orlando by reversing a spin at the top of the key to shake his defender and then blew by Vucevic, scooping the ball off the glass to put the game out of reach at 98-88 with less than a minute remaining. Doug McDermott chipped in too in the first half, mostly by aggressively cutting to the basket. He finished with 12 points in less than 12 minutes.

Orlando’s attack was led by Tobias Harris (21 points on 9-15 shooting to go with nine boards) and Vucevic, who had 19 and 13, but was just 9-22 from the floor. Channing Frye did his usual damage against the Bulls, hitting three of four triples, though thankfully for the Bulls those were his only attempts in 36 minutes. He and Harris were the only Magic (Magicians?) to shoot over 50%. Evan Fournier’s 13 points and 2-5 shooting from distance was marred by going 5-14 overall, just as rookie Elfrid Payton’s seven assists were dampened by a paltry 3-14 line. Ex-Bull Ben Gordon chipped in with six points on six shots in 17 minutes off the bench.

Chicago continues their run of Eastern Conference bottom-feeders tomorrow night in Milwaukee. It remains to be seen if they will get Noah or Derrick Rose back, reinforcements they’ll likely need if they are to keep their encouraging start going.

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For as sick as Bulls fans are of the two questions that permeate every discussion of the franchise (1. Can Derrick Rose stay healthy? 2. Where will the ancillary playmaking come from even if he does?), Magic fans must be tired around the same talking points around their team as well. Since Dwight Howard got what he wanted…and then didn’t want…and then did again…and extricated himself from Orlando, the Magic have built up the roster with young players, building a group that works hard and is very intriguing, yet one that hasn’t cemented their viability as a contender down the road. Esteemed rookies Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton have arrived, but the team’s slogan for the time being might as well be “The 2015 Magic: Like the 2014 Magic, except with a smidge of Ben Gordon!”

As for the Bulls, Joakim Noah is ill, and still clearly not all the way back to himself from his knee ailment, and has been declared out for tonight. That means Taj Gibson, returning from his ankle injury, will start. It also appears Derrick Rose will return from his ankle injuries. With four games in five nights, and the team’s best players not 100%, expect Aaron Brooks, Tony Snell and Nikola Mirotic to all factor in tonight.

The Magic are dealing with their own woes, as sophomore guard Victor Oladipo is still recovering from serious facial surgery after an elbow to the face. That leaves Payton to handle much of the ballhandling, and he’ll also use his defensive skills to hamper Rose on the other end, both elements of his game that he has received praise for even just a couple games into his career. Big man Kyle O’Quinn is out as well with an ankle injury.

Aside from an April win for the Bulls in which Orlando had essentially packed up shop for the summer, the two teams played each other rather evenly last year.  The Magic snagged a one point win in Chicago before Christmas, which the Bulls avenged a month later, winning their triple overtime marathon that saw Oladipo play 57 minutes and Jimmy Butler a mind-boggling 60.

UPDATE: After a confusing few minutes, we learned that Rose would sit again tonight as a precaution with Kirk Hinrich starting in his place.

Starting lineups:

Magic (0-3): G Elfrid Payton, G Evan Fournier, F Tobias Harris, F/C Channing Frye, C Nikola Vucevic

Bulls (2-1):  G Kirk Hinrich, G/F Jimmy Butler, F Mike Dunleavy, F/C Taj Gibson, C/F Pau Gasol

The post Magic at Bulls Preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

It wasn’t always pretty, or comfortable, but the Bulls got the job done tonight. With D.J. Augustin away from the team to be with his wife and new baby boy (not that he’s reading this, but congratulations to the Augustin family), the Bulls had some surprise contributors step up and fill the scoring void left in his absence.

The night started with the Bulls looking like they might cruise over a team ready to go on vacation a bit early, as they jumped out to a 16-4 lead. But this is the Bulls so of course nothing can be easy, and the lead quickly dissipated, though Chicago built it back up to five by the quarter. The second quarter was a bit wonky for the Bulls, as Jimmer was filling in for D.J., Carlos Boozer got rare floor time outside of his usual 24 minutes after Taj Gibson picked up three fouls, and Tony Snell came in late in the quarter, rather than at the beginning. It’s hard to envision ever seeing a Fredette-Butler-Dunleavy-Boozer-Mohammed lineup ever again.

By that point, the Bulls had stretched their lead to a dozen. They got the usual scoring from the likes of Noah, Boozer and Dunleavy (11, 10 and nine, respectively), but the shocking contribution came from the rookie Snell. Yanked after less than three minutes last night, Snell got off to a rocky start after getting demolished on this ambitious dunk attempt:

He could have easily been discouraged, but he recovered with a midrange jumper, a made three (seen in the header photo), and then recovering a loose ball, going half the length of the court and finishing at the rim. He helped on defense as well, committing a hard foul at the rim to prevent a layup, for which Jo praised him. To end the half, he threw up a high-arching baseline shot that swished in, giving the Bulls a 13 point lead. Again, Jo tried to amp him up with a celebration, bumping his chest, to which the rookie got a little more animated than in the past. Jimmer was fun, but for me, the best part of the night was watching Snell play well and fit in with the team in multiple ways. You can tell he still feels not quite settled in his role and how his personality fits with the rest of this emotional team (Taj picked up his second technical in as many nights), but he’s getting there.

Orlando managed to trim the lead to three in the third quarter, but this game was never totally in doubt because the Magic again chose not to play their best players in the fourth quarter. After letting their backups decide a winnable game against Brooklyn, they again left Arron Afflalo and Victor Oladipo watch as their bench slowly but surely succumbed to the Bulls, who as usual pushed hard at the beginning of the final quarter with a closing-type lineup, with one notable exception…

Just as I had tweeted that it was disappointing to see Snell not get a second stint when he plays this well, he entered the game for, of all people, Jimmy. And he stayed in for the whole quarter. To repeat: Jimmy Butler got to rest the entire fourth quarter in favor of Tony Snell. That might seem like the team backed off the pedal in light of playoff seedings, but Noah remained in the game until almost the final minute (which was ridiculous, but whatever). Regardless of the reasons, it was nice to see Jimmy rest and to see Snell get to close.

Jimmer deserves a mention here as well. He only hit one of five triples, but as Nate Robinson did and Augustin does, it was great watching Jimmer be able to create shots on his own, especially with floaters in the lane. Playing over 30 minutes, he finished with 17 points on 7-14 shooting, and held up alright on defense. He’s not going to be a good defender but he did some little things like taking a charge that will endear him to teammates and compensate for his flaws.

With Orlando content to play backups, no Magic player tallied over 30 minutes. Kyle O’Quinn (9-11 FG, 20 points, seven boards) and Andrew Nicholson (8-9 FG, 3-3 3FG, 19 points) led the way for Orlando, but when Ronnie Price, 11 assists aside, logs more time than Oladipo, it’s obvious the franchise is thinking ahead to the lottery.

In addition to Snell and Fredette’s contributions, Dunleavy tied his 2014 high with 22 points and Noah had yet another near triple double, with 18, ten and eight.

The Bulls close out the regular season in Charlotte on Wednesday.

The post Bulls 108, Magic 95: Dude, You’re Getting A Snell appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

If the prior two meetings between these teams are any indication, expect a close game tonight. They probably aren’t any indication, as Orlando’s tanking and the Bulls will likely be mad after the way they played yesterday, but either way, the first time they played back in December, Luol Deng missed a potential game-tying layup in the final seconds, leading to an 83-82 Orlando victory. Then, despite a big game from Victor Oladipo, the Bulls got even a month later in Orlando, prevailing in the triple overtime game where Jimmy Butler played an astonishing 60 minutes.

For the first time this season, one of them is over .500. In their other meetings, the Magic were already well on their way towards claiming a fair number of ping-pong balls in the lottery, and Chicago hadn’t yet climbed out of the swamp they were mired in after Derrick Rose’s injury.

Dewayne Dedmon is starting for the Magic now that center Nikola Vucevic has been shut down for the year and Glen Davis accepted a buyout to compete for a title in Los Angeles, so the Bulls should have a big edge down low tonight. Frankly, the Bulls should have an edge everywhere tonight after looking at Orlando’s most recent box score. In a competitive game in Brooklyn last night, Arron Afflalo played just 21 minutes and Victor Oladipo only 26. It’s nearly a useless phrase these days, but this game might really be decided by who wants it more. The Bulls want to win and, players aside, the Magic would prefer to lose these last couple of games before their season mercifully ends.

Scoreboard watching:

Bucks at Raptors: Toronto should have no problem beating Milwaukee, leaving them one win against the Knicks away from clinching the 3 seed and locking Chicago into the 4.

Miami at Washington: A Washington win would keep hope alive of Chicago playing them in the 4-5 matchup. Also, a Miami loss would lock them into the 2 seed, which means Indiana would clinch the 1 before playing tomorrow.

The post Bulls vs Magic Preview appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

ClockworkGrue | Flickr

Late in the first overtime period against the Orlando Magic, things looked grim for the Chicago Bulls. They were down by three and were struggling to execute properly, resulting in turnovers that could have allowed the Magic to seal the deal.

Instead, they got another chance at it, still trailing by three with 15 seconds left and made the most of it, as Mike Dunleavy would hit a wide open three off a beautiful set. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, with 1:20 left in the first overtime, the Bulls ran possibly their favorite late-game set, which I’ve broken down previously here at BbtH. It’s a versatile set, capable of generating layups as well as jumpers. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go according to plan this time.

From the way DJ Augustin reacted, I assume he thought he was fouled, but it looks to me like Joakim Noah jumped the gun on his screen a little bit and hit DJ instead. Which is too bad, because Taj Gibson is about to hit Mo Harkless with a surprise backscreen to free Tony Snell up in the corner, and Gibson’s defender — Glen Davis — isn’t even looking at him. Alas.

Anyway, about 35 seconds later, the Bulls got another crack at it, after Noah rebounded a Snell miss from the corner and got fouled. They ran another one of their favorite sets, one that actually pre-dates Tom Thibodeau’s tenure with the team. At the very, very end of this clip from 2009, Jeff Van Gundy attributes it to Mike D’Antoni’s Phoenix Suns. But regardless, it didn’t work out quite so well last night.

The play isn’t terribly complex or anything. Basically, you inbound the ball to someone at the elbow, then the inbounder gets a flare screen as he runs across the court. DJ is actually wide open there, but Davis, guarding Noah, either recognizes the play and purposely disrupts Noah’s ability to make the pass, or just decides to pressure him and kind of accidentally blows up the play. Either way, Noah can’t make the pass and turns it over.

Fortunately, the Bulls would get a stop and another shot to tie the game. And although I kind of pride myself on being conversant in most of the Bulls’ late-game sets, I’d never seen this one before.

The play starts with the Bulls in kind of an arc on the side of the floor away from the inbounder. Augustin, in the corner, will pop out toward the top of the key, receiving a screen from Snell.

Snell actually slips his screen here, though I’m not really sure if that’s by design or not. I think it is, if only because that would best combat a switch there. Anyway, he then cuts along the baseline to the near corner. Mo Harkless, his defender, hesitates a bit there and if the Bulls had needed a layup, Snell could’ve gotten one. But he recovers well enough to contest a potential three. Meanwhile, DJ continues up toward the top of the key, receiving a double screen from Noah and Dunleavy. So far, so good, for both teams.

Here’s where things start to get interesting. Augustin, rather than run along the three-point line toward the inbounder like you might expect, hangs a sharp left and he and Noah set a double screen for Dunleavy. Note that Snell is running open along the baseline, but that Harkless is in position to challenge him should he get the ball.

The thing that stands out most to me about this part of the play is that Augustin isn’t setting up to screen Dunleavy’s man, he makes a beeline for Davis, who is guarding Noah here. This is one of those things where the cliche of a chess game seems appropriate. Thibs — or whoever designed the play — has realized that most teams will switch rather than fight through screens late in games, and having DJ screen the help defender is a next-level stroke of genius. (It’s also worth noting that this is what informs my earlier speculation about whether Snell was supposed to slip his screen or not.) By screening the second level of help, the Bulls introduce an extra layer of communication that might foul up even an elite defense for a crucial second or two.

I have helpfully circled Jameer Nelson in the picture above, since it would theoretically be his responsibility to pick up Dunleavy as he curls around the screen from Noah. Davis isn’t really in any position to help to begin with, but Augustin’s presence takes him out of the play completely. Nelson, meanwhile, sticks to Augustin like a tick, allowing Dunleavy to come WIIIIIIIIIDE open. It’s also worth mentioning that Jimmy Butler, inbounding the ball, gives just enough of a fake to Snell to get Tobias Harris leaning the wrong way to help on Dunleavy.

So, yeah. Dunleavy now has the ball with nobody within six feet of him and anyone who could help is in absolutely no position to do so. Victor Oladipo has been completely taken out of the play by Noah’s (possibly illegal) screen. Davis doesn’t realize he needs to help until it’s too late and he’s being screened by Augustin anyway. Harris and Harkless are too far away, and Jameer doesn’t even know there’s anyone behind him. End result, wide open three and a tie game.

Obviously, I don’t know this, because I’m sadly not privy to the Bulls’ timeout huddles, but I’d guess there’s another action that would come after Dunleavy gets the ball in case they’ve covered everything. Probably featuring Jimmy sliding down to the corner and getting a flare screen from Snell, but I really don’t know. Anyway, here’s the full play:

The Bulls have some great late-game plays they can pull out, and it appears we have a new one to add to that list. I look forward to seeing this play again.

The post Breaking down the Chicago Bulls clutch plays against the Orlando Magic appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

stijlfoto | Flickr

Before the Chicago Bulls won a marathon triple-overtime game against the Orlando Magic, 128-125, I stated on Twitter that it would qualify as a minor miracle if either team cracked 90 points. I was basing that prediction on the last meeting between these teams, an 83-82 barn burner in Chicago, and on the absence of Luol Deng, Arron Afflalo and Nikola Vucevic from this meeting.

Oops.

That brings to what we learned.

1. As always, I’m an idiot.

And don’t you forget it.

2. Yay Tony Snell!

Snell finished with 15 points on 6/12 from the field to go with 7 rebounds. He also hit some big shots in overtime, none bigger than the eventual game winner with about 49 seconds left in the third overtime. He played 34 minutes, including pretty much the entirety of overtime, and did everything that was asked of him. Oh, and he threw down an awesome dunk in the second overtime. Watch your head, Jameer!

Courtesy of SBNation

Snell’s had kind of a weird season. He was thrown to the wolves on opening night against LeBron James because of foul trouble for Deng and Jimmy Butler, then barely played for the next few weeks, then started several games after Derrick Rose went down, then went back to not playing much, and now has seen his minutes go back up since Deng was traded. His numbers this year don’t look great, thanks to a rough December, but since the start of the new year, he’s shooting 48 percent from the field and 39 percent from three and scoring about 13 points per 36 minutes. For a guy who was generally regarded as a reach at the 20th pick and who didn’t seem likely to play much going into the year, that’s pretty good.

3. #FireKirkHinrich #OutOfACannon

DJ Augustin is so much better it’s almost sad. Kirk posted a line of 7 points on 3/11 shooting with all of 1 assist in nearly 26 minutes. Augustin didn’t shoot well (7/18) himself, but he hit 3 threes and tallied 9 assists. Kirk just isn’t anything like a decent point guard in the NBA anymore.

4. Taj Gibson is the closer.

Carlos Boozer scored 23 points in 28 minutes on 11/17 from the field, but didn’t see the floor after the end of the third quarter. Taj scored 6 points in almost 43 minutes on 3/10 from the field, but didn’t leave the floor at any point after the third quarter. Make of that what you will.

5. Time is a river…

OK. We’ve now reached the ticklish bit of this game. Jimmy finished with a franchise regular-season record for minutes played at 60:22. Joakim Noah played 48:41. This was #ThibsBall at its finest. Is it bad? Yeah, probably. 60 minutes is kind of a lot, even for a guy who played all 48 minutes 5 times in 7 games during last year’s playoffs. And with Noah’s lingering plantar fasciitis…well, lingering, playing him a lot of minutes isn’t a great idea either.

That said, I saw a lot of chatter about this — along with Tom Thibodeau’s rather flippant response to questions about it — potentially being a fireable offense. Which I think is ridiculous.

Look, Thibs is a fantastic coach. He is more or less single-handedly responsible for the “strong side overload” defense that currently is in vogue around the league. He wins games at a ridiculous rate, and were it not for some extremely unfortunate injuries, might well have won a title already.* The Bulls are — theoretically, pending the health of Rose — going to be contenders again in 2014-15, so why would you jettison such a great coach? Go ask the Denver Nuggets or Memphis Grizzlies how that sort of thing works out.

*It can be argued that Thibs is at least partially responsible for said injuries, but I’m still not sure how much I buy that. He certainly hasn’t helped, and his penchant for putting players who are obviously hurt back into games (#FredClearedHim!) is frustrating and destructive, but I haven’t seen anything in most of the major injuries that suggests wear and tear is responsible. Rose’s knee and Noah’s ankle in 2012 were the result of them landing wrong. Deng got sick and had a botched spinal tap in 2013, so unless you wanted Thibs to perform the spinal tap himself, I’m not really sure what he could have done. And then there’s Rose this year, which, again, was the result of his landing wrong.

Besides, this is hardly the worst of his offenses. In 2012, Thibs played Jimmy all 48 minutes of A PRESEASON GAME. I swear I’m not making that up. How is this any worse than that?

Anyway, that’s all I got. Jimmy’s still alive — for now — and the Bulls have today off before they head to our nation’s capital to take on the Washington Wizards.

The post Chicago Bulls 128, Orlando Magic 125: What did we learn? appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

/Sizemore/ | Flickr

The Chicago Bulls lost to the Orlando Magic last night, 83-82. It was yet another in a string of ugly games, as the Bulls offense basically went AWOL once Luol Deng got hurt. He’s back now, but even he can’t save this mess.

Traditionally, there would be a list of things that we learned from the game in this space, but there’s really only one point I want to make here, so we’re scratching the list format.

We’ve now officially reached the point where I can’t deal with this team anymore. In its current form, this team is essentially unwatchable. In lieu of watching the Bulls get slaughtered by the Houston Rockets tomorrow night, I’m going to go watch the DePaul men’s basketball team play something called a Houston Baptist. That should tell you quite a bit about how I feel about the Bulls, given that I haven’t watched a DePaul game in at least five or six years.

There’s been a lot of debate about whether the Bulls should tank this season. The question is actually somewhat more complicated than that, since Tom Thibodeau is not exactly the ideal coach for a tanking team and forcing him to tank by trading his best players — Luol Deng in particular — might well inspire mutiny from a coach who already borderline despises the front office. But something has to give. I don’t know what it is, but it needs to give.

Maybe it’s a trade to legitimately bolster the team. Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors is available and the Bulls desperately need a competent point guard. You think the Bulls couldn’t snag him for Kirk Hinrich and a lightly protected first rounder, given that the New York Knicks nearly got him for Raymond Felton, Metta World Peace and their 2018 first rounder? Lowry’s expiring after the season, and such a trade would allow the front office to finally cut ties with Marquis Teague — something they’ve been trying to do since the beginning of the preseason — in order to match salary.

Or maybe it’s trading Deng. Or Boozer. Or Taj Gibson. Or some combination of those three, or all three of them. I don’t know. But the status quo is intolerable. I’m not willing to put up with another four months of games like we’ve had the last few weeks.

I’m not willing to put up with a team that can only break 80 points in a game because Mike Dunleavy threw in a meaningless heave from halfcourt at the buzzer. I’m not willing to put up with a team that gets blown out by the Raptors and Detroit Pistons, loses to the Knicks even when the Knicks do their level best to hand them the game, and barely beats the Milwaukee Bucks after losing to them three days earlier.

I don’t blame anyone for the current situation. Thibs is doing the best he can with a deeply flawed roster that was supposed to have Derrick Rose anchoring it. Gar Foreman and John Paxson assembled a team that had a legit shot at dethroning the Miami Heat before Rose went down. It’s not their fault Rose got hurt again and has to miss ANOTHER season. It’s not the training staff’s fault that Rose got hurt, and for all the #FredClearedHim jokes I’ve made, they’re not the reason the Bulls are terrible.

Could this have been avoided if the Bulls had kept Nate Robinson? Potentially. But that wasn’t going to happen and everyone who makes this argument knows it wasn’t going to happen. Nate wanted a multi-year deal for real money and the Bulls absolutely were not going to give it to him with Rose coming back and Hinrich making more than $4 million this season.

So where does that leave us? I don’t know. But if somebody doesn’t figure that out soon, I think I’m going to be watching a lot of DePaul basketball these next few months.

The post Orlando Magic 83, Chicago Bulls 82: What did we learn? appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “It’s just terrible. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, the first responders, everybody there. It’s just terrible. Very, very sad. … It’s unfathomable just to think about something like that happening there. Again, it’s just a terrible day. Terrible.”

The word “terrible” pretty much sums it, but no single word or words can quite do justice to the grief many are feeling.

Given the scope of the tragedy — at least 140 people injured, 17 people in critical condition, three people dead — I almost feel guilty reporting good news. Namely that Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson returned to action last night.

For the first time in what feels like forever, the Bulls had an almost full cast of characters, with Derrick Rose (left knee rehab) the only player still missing in action. (Unless you count Vladimir Radmanovic, who missed the game with a back injury, possibly from sitting on the bench too hard.)

After missing the last seven games with a sprained left knee, Gibson logged 21 minutes and submitted a nice all-around effort (12 points, 5-for-11, 2 assists, 2 blocks, 1 rebound). Noah, who was absent four games due to an ongoing case of plantar faciitis, finished with a stat line of 14 minutes, 6 points and 5 rebounds.

Nothing earth shattering. But man…it was good to have all those warm bodies.

Said Thibs: “I thought both guys were very active. “It was just good to have some depth, to have some guys you could play up front.”

Added Gibson: “The main thing I want to do is just play some defense, get our defense back because our defense has been really awful the last couple of games, contesting shots, getting offside help, and it was good [to be back].”

The defense was indeed back. Chicago held the home team to 84 points on 41 percent shooting. The Magic went 2-for-10 from three-point range and committed 17 turnovers for 20 points going the other way. The Bulls even played lock down D at the free throw line, where the Magic missed 13 of their 33 attempts.

Of course, Orlando finished the season 12-29 at home, so they aren’t exactly world killers. But then again, the Bulls lost twice to the Toronto Raptors last week, so beating bad teams isn’t exactly a given these days. In fact, five of their last six losses have been against teams that won’t be in the playoffs (Dallas, Washington, Detroit, and Toronto twice). Although having a nearly full roster obviously makes a big difference.

Said Boozer: “We’re a team that has people on this team for certain reasons and that’s why our team works. It’s like having a car that’s missing a couple of pieces. It ain’t going to run as smooth. But once we’ve got everybody back out there, once you’ve got the parts on the car, it runs pretty good.”

Just imagine how well the car would run if the team’s engine — D-Rose — made his return.

Said Gibson: “We feel like that every day. He works out with us, he practices with us and it’s like he never left. But it’s just different when the game comes. We’re still patient knowing that he could possibly play one of the games coming up but until that time we have to just stay sharp and be ready (for) whenever he’s ready to come back.”

Added Boozer: “We can’t worry about all that. We just got to worry about what’s in front of us. He’s doing his job on what he has to do. We’re doing our job on what we have to do and if he comes back … whew, it would be awesome. If he doesn’t then we got to go with what we got.”

Boozer isn’t kidding. He’s submitted a strong month: 18.9 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 9 games. And he was especially sharp against the Magic, scoring a team-best 22 points on 11-for-15 shooting to go with 6 boards and 4 assists. The Bulls also got strong performances from Luol Deng (18 points, 8-for-11, 8 assists), Marco Belinelli (16 points, 6-for-9, 2 assists) and Kirk Hinrich (14 points, 5-for-8, 4 assists, 3 steals).

It was apparently a “defense optional” night for the Magic, given that the Bulls shot 56 percent from the field and scored at a rate of 119.9 points per 100 possessions (per Basketball-Reference). The Bulls also had 33 assists on 42 made field goals. Not bad considering a blah first quarter that saw them shoot 9-for-20.

Don’t expect Chicago’s coach to start doing cartwheels, though.

Said Thibs: “We still got a lot of work to do. We’re going to have to be at our best in a very short amount of time. I know in looking at our team we’re a well-rested team but the question I have is: Are we a sharp team? We have guys who haven’t played a lot of minutes that are going to be called upon to be at their best. And the moment of truth will be here shortly.”

Speaking of which, the Bulls (44-37) are now a half-game behind the Atlanta Hawks (44-36) in the battle for the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. Chicago has one home game left against the Wizards on Wednesday, while the Hawks play at home against the Raptors on Tuesday night and on the road against the New York Knicks on Thursday. Of course, the Knicks have already locked up the East’s second seed and will likely be resting starters, so that game might be something of a gimmie for the Hawks.

Still, if the Bulls win their final game and the Hawks lose one of their final two, the Bulls will get the fifth seed because they won their season series with the Hawks 2-1.

The difference between fifth and sixth place could be huge, considering a fifth seed means facing the Brooklyn Nets, while a sixth seed means facing the Indiana Pacers. The Bulls won their season series against the Nets 3-1 but lost their season series against the Pacers 1-3.

That said, the Pacers have their own issues to deal with, after losing Danny Granger for the season and having lost four of their last five games after a enormously successful five-game Western Conference road trip. Meanwhile, All-Star Paul George has been in a real funk lately, having gone 17-for-60 from the field (including 6-for-28 from three-point range) over the past five games.

But there’s no need for speculation at this point. The Bulls aren’t in control of their destiny anymore. All they can do is try to get healthy and develop some rhythm heading into the postseason.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post The Bulls finally beat a bad team appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Possibly even more surprising was their post-Dwight Howard offensive uptick. In those two wins, the Magic scored 102 points against the Denver Nuggets and then 115 points against the Phoenix Suns.

The Bulls — who also had enjoyed a quick 2-0 start — were coming off a disappointing home loss to the New Orleans Hornets in which they were outworked and outplayed amid an offensive meltdown.

The bad news was two-fold for the Magic.

First: The Bulls currently lead the league in Defensive Rating — giving up only 95.3 points per 100 possessions — and had held their previous nine opponents below 90 points.

In other words, the Magic — who were missing Al Harrington, Hedo Turkoglu and Jameer Nelson — were highly unlikely to enjoy the same kind of offensive success they had against the Nuggets (currently 21st in Defensive Rating) and Suns (23rd in Defensive Rating).

Second: Under head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls rarely lose two games in a row. It happened only four times during Thibodeau’s first season and only once last season. What’s more, the Bulls haven’t lost two games in the United Center since dropping five in a row (during a larger 10-game skid) in March of 2012. Back when, you know, Vinny Del Negro was coaching the team.

That trend continued last night as the Bulls put forth a much better offensive effort, scoring 99 points on 47.7 percent shooting and finishing with an Offensive Rating of 105.3.

That said, it wasn’t an overpowering win, nor a particularly pretty one.

The Bulls looked absolutely helpless against Arron Afflalo (game-high 28 points, 10-for-17, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and trailed by as many as 7 points in the third quarter. Then — with Thibs employing an unusual lineup of Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson — Chicago outscored the Magic 31-23 in the final 12 minutes to secure the comeback victory.

Said Deng: “This was a tough game. They’re playing well, and we lost our last game. It’s one of those we needed to win. You don’t want to lose two, then we’ve got Oklahoma (City) coming in. The fourth quarter was really good for the team.”

Deng certainly did his part, scoring 15 of his team-best 23 points in the second half — on 9-for-16 shooting — to go with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. And 8 of those points came in the fourth, off three mid-range jumpers and a couple free throws.

Noah did his part, too, racking up 20 points (7-for-13), 9 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 4 assists. His 7 fourth-quarter points included two jumpers from about 20 feet out that were followed by some pretty enthusiastic finger pistols. He also fed Gibson for a dunk-and-foul with 39 seconds left. Taj completed the three-point play to put the Bulls up 96-89, which essentially put the game away.

The only two blights on Noah’s performance were 1) a missed free throw with 23 seconds to go and 2) a rushed (and needless) three-pointer with three seconds left. The first blight kept the Bulls stuck on 99 points — a mere one point away from earning the UC crowd free Big Macs — and the second blight was a rather misguided attempt to make up for the first.

Said Noah: “I got caught up in the moment. I regret it a little bit. It wasn’t a good shot. You have to respect the game because you never know what can happen in a game, I just got caught up in the moment and I was trying to get the people a Big Mac. They really wanted a Big Mac and I felt like, not only did I take the shot and miss the shot, we didn’t even get the Big Mac. Next time I won’t take that 3-pointer.”

Noah isn’t kidding. The crowd spent the last minute of the game concerned much more with the prospect of free food than Chicago’s 3-1 start. They groaned when Noah missed that free throw. They groaned even more loudly when Kirk Hinrich bricked two freebies 13 seconds later. And there was a collective “Awww!” when Noah’s ill-advised triple went astray.

Oh well. As Walt Disney used to say, always leave them wanting more.

Back to the game…this may have been the best performance of the new bench so far. The reserves contributed 29 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots. And, as noted, Butler (4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal), Gibson (12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) and Robinson (11 points, 5-for-8, 6 assists) were instrumental in Chicago’s fourth quarter comeback.

Those contributions were needed because Carlos Boozer (6-for-18) was struggling to locate his shot and Kirk Hinrich was solid (8 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) but not providing the necessary spark.

Still too, it helped that the Magic were minus three projected starters, and that Glen Davis was so darn shot-happy. Last night, he led the Magic in field goal attempts (22) and missed field goal attempts (15)…and that included several air balls. Big Baby was averaging better than 25 points in Orlando’s first two games, but that doesn’t mean he should force up jumpers over taller opponents. But that’s what he did again and again.

Which played into the Chicago’s defensive plan.

Davis was also a big part in what may have been the game’s defining moment. With his team trailing only 93-89 and nearly a minute left in the game, Davis forced up a 26-footer that never had a chance of going in. It was, to be very generous, a questionable decision. In 341 career games, Davis has attempted a total of 39 three-pointers and converted only six of them, a “success” rate of 15.4 percent. What he was doing chucking a three in that circumstance is anyone’s guess.

The Bulls responded to Baby’s brain spasm with that play in which Noah fed Gibson for the dunk and contact. That two-way sequence turned a winnable game into a loss for the Magic.

So Bulls fans might consider sending Davis a thank you card.

On the other hand, The Bulls had their struggles with Afflalo, not to mention E’Twaun Moore (17 points, 7-for-13, 3-for-4 on threes) and Nikola Vucevic (16 points, 10 rebounds, 2 blocks).

The Bulls also lost track of Orlando’s three-point shooters, which helped the Magic go 8-for-19 from downtown (42 percent). By contract, Chicago attempted a mere six three-pointers, converting on only two of them.

I know it’s early, but the Bulls have attempted only 42 threes, which ranks 27th in the league. Worse, they’re shooting a dismal 26.2 percent from beyond the arc, which is 29th in the league. It’s always dangerous to draw too many conclusions from a four-game sample, but I can’t see these numbers changing much. The Bulls — without Derrick Rose and especially after the departure of Kyle Korver — aren’t going to get many threes this season.

But that’s a worry for another day.

Key Stat Part 1:
In their first two games, the Magic averaged 14 fast break points. Last night, they scored only 9.

Key Stat Part 2:
According to Hoopdata, the Bulls shot 18-for-36 (50 percent) from 16-23 feet. The “long two” is the worst shot in the game…but the Bulls were converting it last night.

Quote of the Night Part 1:
Robinson: “I think we wanted it more. I think at the end, we were more gritty. Coach said whatever it takes to get the win. So tonight, we had to gut it out.”

Quote of the Night Part 2:
Noah: “(Winning is) all that counts, but we need to play better. This isn’t going to cut it against a better team. We’ve just got to keep fighting.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-by-Play, Shot Chart.

The post Game Recap: Bulls 99, Magic 93 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

To continue what has become a common refrain this season, the Bulls had yet another “first time since the Michael Jordan era” moment yesterday when they reached the always-special 60-win plateau.

In fact, the only other times the Bulls have ever won at least 60 games was in the MJ era. Jordan’s teams did it in 1990-91 (61-21), 1991-92 (67-15), 1995-96 (72-10), 1996-97 (69-13) and 1997-98 (62-20).

In theory, win number 60 should have been a little easier than it was. After all, the Magic were minus Dwight Howard (not to mention J.J Redick and Quentin Richardson). Meanwhile, the Bulls were on fire: They hit 10 of their first 11 shots and finished the game shooting 60 percent from the field and 7-for-13 from downtown. They hit 22 of their 26 free throw attempts, won the rebounding battle 37-33 and registered 25 assists on  their 36 field goals. Plus, Derrick Rose was unstoppable (39 points, 13-for-17 from the field, 3-for-5 from downtown, 10-for-10 from the line).

What the Bulls did not expect was such a spirited performance from an understaffed Magic team. Ryan Anderson tried to do his best Dwight Howard impersonation by scoring a career-high 28 points (9-for-18 from the f ield, 4-for-8 from downtown, 6-for-6 from the line) to go with 10 rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot. Jason Richardson was locked in (24 points on 10-for-14 shooting including 4-for-5 from downtown) and Jameer Nelson was ready to play (17 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals).

I’m sure Howard’s teammates all support his bid for MVP. But they sure don’t seem to agree with what has become the primary argument in Howard’s favor: That they’re basically a bunch of bums who would totally fall apart without him. They didn’t. Although their defense sure left something to be desired.

Of course, that D helped force the Bulls into 21 turnovers, which led to 23 points going the other way. That was the reason the Magic didn’t get blown out. That Orlando actually took a three-point lead in the fourth was a little stunning. But weird things happen when you give the basketball away.

Said Magic coach Stan Van Grumpy, er, Gundy: “It is hard to believe you’re even in the game. Their 21 turnovers were they only thing that kept us in the game. … We didn’t defend them well enough to win. They were breaking us down every time.”

Added Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “They played extremely well. It wasn’t a good game for us. Our defense wasn’t very good, our rebounding was below average and we didn’t take care of the ball. We were fortunate (to) win.”

Sorry, Stan. Thibs will not be outdone in the “not happy with my team’s performance” department.

Rose was his usual clutch self, scoring 11 points in the fourth, including eight points in the final 4:26. The final flurry started with an eight-foot jumper to put the Bulls up 91-89. With 2:40 left, after the Magic had gone up 94-91, Rose drew a foul on Anderson and went 2-for-2 from the line. Luol Deng had the ball stolen by Richardson on Chicago’s next possession, then Taj Gibson stole Richardson’s pss and fed it to Rose for a dunk that put the Bulls up 95-94. Rose also went 2-for-2 from the line with nine seconds left to put Chicago up 100-96.

Still, there was added drama when Richardson drilled a three with two seconds left. Carlos Boozer was fouled and connected on both freebies to put the Bulls up 102-99. Nelson very neary tied the game with a triple at the buzzer, but video review showed he shot it a little too late.

Bulls win.

Make it seven wins in a row and 19 in their last 20.

Still, the Bulls really should have won this game more handily, and they know it.

Said Rose: “We had them. We should have easily put them away. But we continue to let teams come back. It’s going to hurt us if we continue to do this. But we’re definitely happy with this win. We’ve got to learn how to put teams away.”

That’s what a leader should say. Leaders can’t be satisified. Rose never is. And it underscores the point made by ESPNChicago’s Nick Friedell: That Rose is and has been a better leader this season than Howard. The main arguments against Rose-for-MVP revolve around stats. But it’s worth noting that leadership is an important component in that whole “Valuable” thing.

I know this makes members of the advanced stats community fidgety because you can’t really quantify leadership or its affect on teammates — some people will say it comes out in plus-minus, but leadership is much broader in scope — but Derrick leads better than Dwight. Even Howard’s coach seems to know that.

Said Van Gundy: “I think where the understanding’s got to be is, when you want to be a leader, how you project yourself is not just about what you think is best for you. It’s how it affects your teammates and everyone else. That’s sort of a fine line with Dwight. Dwight can be loose and a little goofy at times and it is hard to say it’s affecting his play because you just look at what he’s done this year, but it affects his teammates. It affects their preparation and it affects their play. I think he’s got to be able to weigh those two things.”

Anyway, not much more to say on that subject, and, anyway, you should read Friedell’s article. Hey, Rose is more concerned with titles than MVPs, and we probably should be, too.

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.

The post 60 Wins: Bulls 102, Magic 99 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.